memeorandum: Separation of Newt and State (Maureen Dowd/New York Times)

9:50 PM ET, December 21, 2011

Top Items:

The GOP's Payroll Tax Fiasco — How did Republicans manage to lose the tax issue to Obama? — GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell famously said a year ago that his main task in the 112th Congress was to make sure that President Obama would not be re-elected.

Discussion: Washington Post, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Reuters, New York Magazine, The New Republic, Gawker, The Week, Rush Limbaugh, Washington Monthly, Business Insider, The Hill, The Monkey Cage, National Review, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Los Angeles Times, DCCC, Washington Wire, American Prospect, Mediaite, The Atlantic Online, New York Times, Campaign 2012, msnbc.com, ABCNEWS, Sister Toldjah, RedState, DownWithTyranny!, ThinkProgress, Big Journalism, The Politico, Firedoglake, neo-neocon, The Mahablog, Liberal Values, Las Vegas Sun, Ballot Box, Outside the Beltway, Slate, FrumForum, Hot Air, The Hill, Patterico's Pontifications, Taylor Marsh, Daily Kos, Washington Times, Booman Tribune, The Moderate Voice, Talking Points Memo, NationalJournal.com, The Huffington Post, FiveThirtyEight and The Lonely Conservative, more at Mediagazer »

ABCNEWS:

Capitol Stand-off: Republicans Caving? — My prediction: House Republicans will soon - probably within 24 hours - cave in and accept the two-month extension of the payroll tax cut passed last week by the Senate. — I base this on conversations with House Republicans who know they are losing …

Discussion: Washington Post, The Reality-Based Community, National Review, Rush Limbaugh, Washington Monthly, Los Angeles Times, Daily Kos, The Hill and Booman Tribune

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Rove: Republicans should fold in payroll tax cut standoff — Former Bush adviser Karl Rove said he agreed with the Wall Street Journal's blistering assessment on the failure of House Republican leadership in the payroll-tax debate, and conceded that Republicans have “lost the optics” and should fold on the issue.

Discussion: CNN, GayPatriot and National Review

Alex Seitz-Wald / ThinkProgress:
Speaker Cuts Off C-SPAN Cameras When Dems Attempt To Bring Vote On Payroll Tax Cut

Discussion: The Caucus, New York Times, NewsBusters.org, Prairie Weather, Washington Post and ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*

Jennifer Epstein / Reuters:
With family away, Obama, Bo shop

Discussion: White House.gov Blog, The Politico and The Gateway Pundit

Stephen C. Webster / The Raw Story:
Boehner's office cuts off C-SPAN cameras as GOP takes verbal beating

Discussion: Mediaite and ThinkProgress

Alex Seitz-Wald / ThinkProgress:
Romney Refuses To Take Position On Payroll Tax Holiday

Discussion: CBS News and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Jonathan Weisman / Washington Wire:
Gingrich to House GOP: Give In on Payroll Tax

Discussion: ThinkProgress, National Review and The Huffington Post

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
Literally walking away from a fight

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Maddow Blog and Washington Post

Amie Parnes / The Hill:
Obama's Hawaii Christmas dilemma

Discussion: Hawaii Reporter, Pundit & Pundette and Outside the Beltway

Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:
House Republicans stiff attempt from Democrats to call up Senate payroll bill

Discussion: The Politico, Firedoglake, Wonkette, Washington Monthly, Wake up America, Hullabaloo and DownWithTyranny!

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:

The point at which Mitt Romney loses his mind — Mitt Romney unveiled a brand-new stump speech in New Hampshire last night, reading a carefully-crafted, poll-tested text from two teleprompters. Confident that his Republican primarily rivals simply won't (or can't) catch him …

Discussion: The Daily Dish, Daily Kos, Balloon Juice and The Caucus

ABCNEWS:
Mitt Romney Says ‘Yes’ To Deporting President Obama's Uncle

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Alexander Burns / The Politico:
You, sir, are no Teddy Roosevelt

Discussion: Political Mojo, New York Magazine, Democracy in America, American Prospect, The Reaction, Paul Krugman, No More Mister Nice Blog and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

James Crugnale / Mediaite:

Rep. Ron Paul Gets Irked By Newsletter Questions, Walks Out Of CNN Interview — Ron Paul walked out of an interview with CNN's Gloria Borger following a heated exchange over the controversy regarding racist newsletters sent in his name during the 1990s. Borger asked the Congressman if he had ever read the newsletters.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, National Review, Little Green Footballs, Business Insider and The PJ Tatler

Justin Sink / The Hill:

Paul abandons interview concerning controversial newsletters — Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) took off his microphone and left a contentious interview on Wednesday when a CNN reporter asked repeatedly about racist articles published in his newsletter in the 1980s and 1990s.

Discussion: CNN and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Victor Morton / Washington Times:

Ex-President Carter sends condolences to Kim Jong-un — Former President Jimmy Carter has sent North Korea a message of condolence over the death of Kim Jong-il and wished “every success” to the man expected to take over as dictator, according to the communist country's state-run news agency.

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Business Insider, The Spectacle Blog, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, American Spectator and The Daily Caller

Benjamin Kang Lim / Reuters:
Exclusive: North Korea's military to share power with Kim's heir

Discussion: New York Times, Associated Press, Gothamist, Outside the Beltway, neo-neocon, New York Magazine and ThinkProgress

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

$335 Million Settlement on Countrywide Lending Bias — The Justice Department on Wednesday announced the largest residential fair-lending settlement in history, saying that Bank of America had agreed to pay $335 million to settle allegations that its Countrywide Financial unit discriminated …

Discussion: Firedoglake and The Huffington Post

The United States Department of Justice:
Justice Department Reaches $335 Million Settlement to Resolve Allegations of Lending Discrimination …

Discussion: The Politico and Washington Post

Betsy Rothstein / FishbowlDC:

Lawmaker Says Michelle Obama Has ‘Large Posterior’ — Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.), known for his cantankerous ways and for not speaking to media unless it's his idea, was overheard at the Delta Crown lounge at Reagan National Airport today talking on his cellphone about an incident …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and Weasel Zippers

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Romney Reverses Position on Iraq — You people don't care about Iraq any more, do you? Didn't think so. — In an interview with MSNBC's Chuck Todd today, Mitt Romney asserts that “of course” invading Iraq was a bad idea now that we know Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Political Mojo, CNN, msnbc.com and Ricochet Conversations Feed

iMFdirect:

2011 In Review: Four Hard Truths — What a difference a year makes ... We started 2011 in recovery mode, admittedly weak and unbalanced, but nevertheless there was hope. The issues appeared more tractable: how to deal with excessive housing debt in the United States …

Discussion: Paul Krugman, Business Insider, Brad DeLong and Guardian

Grist:

New EPA mercury rules are a bona fide Big Deal — Wednesday, at long last, the EPA unveiled its new rule covering mercury and other toxic emissions from coal- and oil-fired power plants. — Anyone who pays attention to green news will have spent the last two years hearing a torrent …

Discussion: Washington Post, Firedoglake, USA Today, Greenversations, Political Mojo, White House.gov Blog and Washington Monthly

yosemite.epa.gov:
EPA Issues First National Standards for Mercury Pollution from Power Plants/ Historic 'mercury …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The 1600 Report, iWatch News, New York Times and Daily Kos

Derek Thompson / The Atlantic Online:

The Most Important Graphs of 2011 — What is it about graphs and economics? In a discipline where facts are murky and certainty is elusive, graphs offer a bright light of information and a small confidence that the world can be summed up between two axes.

Discussion: Business Insider and Real Time Economics

Timothy Kincaid / Box Turtle Bulletin:

Newt Gingrich did NOT say that he doesn't want gay votes — I don't like being played for a fool. And that is exactly what happened when Jason Clayworth posted a commentary entitled, “Newt Gingrich to gay Iowan: Vote for Obama”. — At BTB we pride ourselves on our accuracy …

Discussion: Towleroad News #gay and GayPatriot

Jason Clayworth / Des Moines Register:
Newt Gingrich to gay Iowan: Vote for Obama

Ron Paul / Washington Post:

Ron Paul becoming serious contender in Republican presidential race — Now, party officials and other candidates are being forced to reckon with him as a purveyor of policy and, in some respects, the leader of a political movement that the GOP would like to harness.

Discussion: Ron Paul 2012 Presidential …

James Q. Lynch / Iowa Caucus 2012:
ISU/Gazette/KCRG Poll: Ron Paul new frontrunner

Discussion: Ballot Box, CNN, The Politico, news.iastate.edu and GOP 12

Doug Stanglin / USA Today:

Sheriff: Stray bullet kills Amish teen 1.5 miles away — A teenage Amish girl shot on the way home from a Christmas party in her horse-drawn buggy was apparently killed by a stray bullet fired by a man cleaning his rifle 1.5 miles away, an Ohio sheriff says.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and Suburban Guerrilla

Brian Tashman / Right Wing Watch:

Robertson Tells Father to Love his Gay Son through ‘Ex-Gay’ Conversion — Today on The 700 Club, a man with an openly gay son asked Pat Robertson how he can show his son “the love of Jesus when you know his sexual preference is an abomination to God.” Robertson told the father to love …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Raw Story and Towleroad News #gay

John Hawkins / Right Wing News:

The 50 Best Political Quotes For 2011 (Third Annual) — 50) Get the hell off the Beach in Asbury Park and get out. You're done. It's 4:30 PM. You've maximized your tan. Get off the beach. Get in you cars and get out of those areas. — Chris Christie 49) NPR is a very elitist …

Discussion: YID With LID, Betsy's Page and The Spectacle Blog

Tommy Christopher / Mediaite:

Mitt Romney bin Busted: ‘Candidate Like Myself’ Would Have Done Bin Laden Raid (Except 2007 Mitt) — At Christmastime, it's comforting to know that a Mitt Romney interview is the gift that keeps on giving. On Wednesday's The Daily Rundown, host Chuck Todd drew a lot out of the candidate with his deceptively easygoing style.

Discussion: US Politics